Chrysin prevents cognitive and hippocampal long-term potentiation deficits and inflammation in rat with cerebral hypoperfusion and reperfusion injury.

Ischemic stroke is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, and extensive efforts have focused on the neuroprotective strategies to minimize complications due to ischemia. This study aimed to examine neuroprotective potential of chrysin, as a natural potent antioxidative and anti-inflammatory agent in an animal model of bilateral common carotid artery occlusion and reperfusion (BCCAO/R).Adult male Wistar rats (250-300 g) were randomly divided into 6 groups and submitted to either sham surgery or BCCAO/R after pretreatment with chrysin (10, 30 and 100 mg/kg, once daily, for 21 consecutive days) or saline containing %5 DMSO. To make the animal model of BCCAO/R, bilateral common carotid arteries were occluded for 20 min, followed by reperfusion. Subsequently, spatial cognitive performance was evaluated in a Morris water maze (MWM), hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP) was recorded from hippocampal dentate gyrus region, after then the hippocampal tissue content of IL-1β and TNF-α were assayed using ELISA kits.The results showed that pretreatment with chrysin significantly prevented BCCAO/R-induced cognitive and hippocampal LTP impairments (p < 0.001). Additionally, BCCAO/R- induced elevation in hippocampal content of IL-1β and TNF-α significantly (p < 0.01, p < 0.01 respectively) while pre-treatment with chrysin restored them (p < 0.01).Our data confirm that chrysin could prevent brain inflammation and thereby prevents cognitive and LTP impairments due to cerebral ischemia. So it could be a promising neuroprotective agent against cerebrovascular insufficiency states.